Friday the 4th of May is the last day of classes. Come out and celebrate with senior studio art majors as they host the reception for their exhibitions. The shows will be up in the University Art Gallery from Monday, April 30th, to Friday, and the concluding reception is Friday, 6 pm, in the Gallery.

Friday at 6 pm come and join the graduating BA students to celebrate their capstone exhibition, which is on display in the University Gallery until that evening. Help us congratulate the students on completion of their degree (and enjoy some lovely snacks while you do)!

In the dark of February we welcomed visiting artist Josh Winkler, Assistant Professor of Printmaking at Minnesota State University – Mankato. He received his MFA from the University of Minnesota in 2010, and has since spent his time creating works on paper, running a small gallery, building a stone cabin, and exhibiting work nationally and internationally.

In addition to a lecture about his work titled “Reaching for the Sun,” Winkler met with students in Printmaking classes. His current artwork reflects his interest in how humans manipulate and label the land and how time, politics, and social change alter the context of both natural and inhabited locations.

Join us this week, December 4th-8th, for the graduating BFA Exhibition featuring the works of graduating BFA Truman student Linan Sun and pieces featured from promising foundation students. The Reception will take place this Friday, but the show will be up Monday through Friday.

Both the reception and the show itself are free and open to the public.

Dusty Folwarczny, Studio Art graduate, and co-founder of Chicago’s Ink Factory, visited Truman in October to talk about her post-Truman career and provide a workshop on Visual Note Taking. She spoke to classes, including the Senior Capstone Seminar, and explained to students what she does as part of this innovative Chicago start-up, and gave them a chance to practice visual note taking themselves.

On Friday, October 13th, Gretchen Claire, a Truman Alumni and Graphic Design major, gave a presentation to design students about her work experiences. Gretchen works for environments WORKS, a Community Design Center firm that is based out of Seattle, Washington. She had been with the company for over eight months. The presentation discussed her ability to get job, what employers are looking for and what students need to think about after graduation. Once the presentation was over Gretchen met with seniors and juniors about their portfolios.

Gretchen Claire (left) meets with design student on her recent return to Truman State University.

Please join Dr. Heidi Cook and others on Tuesday, October 17, at 5 p.m. in the University Art Gallery, for an artist talk by Laura Berman, professor of printmaking at the Kansas City Art Institute, in conjunction with her solo exhibition Once & Then. Refreshments to follow at 6 p.m.

Join us Tuesday, August 29th at 5pm for the Fall 2017 New Work by Truman State Art Faculty show, featuring works from Professors Matt Derezinski, Lindsey Dunnagan, Aaron Neeley, Russell Nelson, and Wynne Wilbur. The show will be up through the 6th of October.

In April, during the last full month of the (academic) year, art students Jennifer Reagan, Nick Phan, Claire Nipper, Morgan Price, Morgan White, Greta Dellinger, Cassie Koelling, and Madi Pearson all went on a trip with Professor Laura Bigger, our printmaking instructor.

The trip took them all to the Minneapolis Institute of the Arts and its Print Study Room, Cave Paper, The Minnesota Center for Book Arts, The Walker Art Center, Midway Center for Contemporary Art, two graduate programs (at the University of Minnesota and the Minneapolis College of Art and Design), Leg Up Press, and the Highpoint Center for Printmaking.

They also made requisite stops to eat doughnuts and yummy food.

Professor Bigger herself writes that this summer she will be heading to Documenta and Berlin to research a study abroad trip for the Art Department. She will also mount an exhibition at The Holland Project in Reno, Nevada, and the Silverwood Park Gallery in St. Anthony, Minnesota. We hope to have pictures from those adventures in the fall.